I know it's a long story...

Well today I was driving down the highway (two lanes both ways), going about 75 on cruise control. When out of nowhere, this woman pulls up behind me, and then changes lanes to the left lane (fast lane). So I am thinking what the hell is this bitch trying to do??? She pulls up next to me and at the same time, I'm still doing 75 while she's going about 80ish. Not paying attention to what the hell she was going....she starts to come over to my lane (left) and I notice this bullshit. Therefore, I down shift into third to speed up so that she does not hit me, while driving on the median bumps and while I still have cruise control on. Then all of a sudden, my car going into limp mode. I pull to the side, my engine light is on, and my idling is really ruff. While my sitting in my car, I noticed that my boost gauge is going crazy, my w/b is going crazy, and my scan gauge set on misfires...which were like in the 100s). I had no idea what the hell was going on!!! So I turn the car off and wait like 30mins. I even disconnected the battery to see if that would reset anything. ****, I had no tools, no phone and I was 25mins away from home....so I started the car and started to drive, but the car was real "putting" down the road. The steering wheel was vibrating hard also. So as I 'm drive home, the engine light comes on, so instead of pulling over, the check my scan gauge and I saw that I was getting bad misfires. So had to keep clearing the code all the way home. I know I should have done that, but ****, I didn't want to be stranded. I made it home and I pop the hood. I did see anything out of the usual. I than check the spark plugs. The number #2 cylinder plug was covered with oil????? Any ideas why?? I have the Pulsars' and their gapped at 35. With thing **** in my vbgarage, what should they be gapped at? What about torque...I really hate installing these damn things! The #2 plug had a piece of insulator was cracked all the way around, it kind of looks like a bead on a necklace (in pic 3 it's the white part, if you didn't know what I was talking about). Here are a few pics....tell me what you think.

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anyone????

 

NOT good

get ahold of a borescope and check #2 piston from the spark plug hole and run a compression test

 

Looks like maybe the plug is grounding out with the insulator cracked like that. Try throwing in a new plug and see what it does. The oily buildup could just be a buildup of gas from the plug not firing properly.

 

that looks like oil! compression test asap!

your plug gap is at max. torque specs I THINK is 22ft/lbs someone correct me if I am wrong.
when I do tune ups it's just a quarter turn of the ratchet handle on any car, unless it's something I am not familiar with. I do not see a crack but that could be from over or under torquing, excessive gap, thermal shock or detonation!

 

Never done a compression test before, how or where would I go to get a borescope or what kind of shop would I go to?? Is it hard to do myself?

 

If the oil was on top of the plug (and it looks like it was), your valve cover gasket is leaking into the spark plug tunnel thing and pooling up.. When you unscrewed the plug.. it would have run down around it and coated the bottom to.

Have you replaced the broken plug to see if it runs better now?

side note: if much oil pooled in there.. it's gonna smoke like crazy when you fire it up..


That pict is from when i found out mine was leaking in the middle of a spark plug change..lol (all the smoke is coming from teh red car in the garage)

 

I can't see the pics but Im going to go with 383 Stroker, as far as locating where the oil came from, I would deff check the inner valve cover gaskets. Most likely thats where it came from. It's possible the plug wasnt torqued enough and the oil just seaped in and followed the threads in, most likely it was when you took the plug out it would deff saturate it entirely, if any pooled up.

Replace the plug for sure, if the porcelin is cracked, even a hairline crack you can barely see, the plug is junk, that would be why the car was running like **** & misifiring.

Could have cracked for various reasons, but it does happen.. just replace, and I would bet money she runs just fine.

Never hurts to do a compression test, but I personally would only do it if I suspected blow-by, and these aren't classic cases of this. So I wouldnt be too worried..

 

If/when you replace the plug,
Something to keep in mind.
All four of the plugs are prety much exposed to the same stresses/wear.

If it were me, Id replace all four plugs.
As far as the oil. It does look more like oil rather the carbon fouling. Like some others have said, probably leaked onto the plug from the top.

As far as a compression check goes, thats relitivly simple. Get a compression gauge from an autoparts store. Get the kind that screws into the spark plug hole.
Then with all the coil packs off ( Dont want this thing starting ) one at a time
screw the tester into each spark plug socket. With the tester in a socket, crank the engen over several times iwth the gas petal on the floor. Then check the gauge. According to the Haynes mnaul it says that "Lowest Cylinder must be within 75% of Highest cylinder." wich doesn't really help much.

Be careful when doing a compression check. Haynes and chiltons conterdict each other.
Do the check with the engine warmed up, spark plug removal is required
Never removed a spark plug unless the engine is cool to prevent damage to the head.


The following information is from the Haynes Manual covering General Motors Chevrolet Cobalt & Pontiac G5 2005 - 2007

Spark plug torque according to my Haynes manual is 15 ft pounds.
The Stock Gap is

2.0L
2005 0.039"
2005 0.042"
2007 0.040"

2.2L
2005 0.040"
2006 0.042"
2007 0.040"

2.4L
2006 0.042"
2007 0.040"

Spark Plug Type
2.0L NGK PFR6T-10G or equivalent
2.2L and 2.4L engines
2005-2006 AC41-981 or equivalent
2007 AC41-103 or equivalent

Make sure your socket has a rubber boot inside it to protect the insulator. If it's an actual spark plug socket, it should have the rubber inside it. (Except aviation spark plug socket)

Another thing to keep in mind is,
my Haynes manual says that Removing a spark plug while the engine is hot is a bad idea and can damage the head.

 

I know I need spark plugs...I'm NOT going to use Pulstar plugs again. A waste of ****** $100!! Now my question is, which ones? one or two steps colder?

 

383 makes a very good point.
do not use anything except NGK, or ACDelco. There's like 2 other brands that this motor doesn't mind but I wouldn't chance it.

 

Bkr7e 4464,thats what i'm running with the TVS

 

bkr7e are 1 step colder. if you're stage 2 or 3 or whatever this should have been one of your first mods.

 

Drats! That's what I get for posting tired at 1:30 in the morning. Good point on the valve cover gasket.

I still live in 3800 world where the plugs are attached to the side of the head, not the top where the valve cover sits.

Pulsar plugs, from what I've heard, aren't worth the money. NGK all the way!

 

Hey my old Shadow had my plugs in the head, and I still had leaking valve cover gasket oil leak down arround my plugs. So that issue is not exclusive to the Cobalts

 

....I know....

lol

 

Now do I torque the plugs to 15 or 22??? People are saying different info. ANd where can I go to purchase the NGK bkr7e's? I check Oreilly's, Autozone, and Advance. I don't want to order online, so anyone know of an auto store?

 

oreilys should be able to get them.. bkr7e is also known by part number 4644

 

Basically this exact thing happened to me. On long trips, cruising on the highway, try to hit the gas, and then start "putting" and misfiring. One of my piston rings had cracked and was getting oil past it. It wasn't bad at first and compression test at the dealer didn't uncover it (they just installed new coil pack and plugs and it seemed happy for a while), until it started smoking too. They checked the spark plug again and it was covered in oil.

The dealer was outstanding about it and found it was a manufacturing defect (despite knowing about my aftermarket parts). I now have a new piston/rod (they come together).

What had happened is I got stress cracks in the piston in between my first and second compression rings, causing the first compression ring to seize under the bottom ledge of the top land. Then when the piston expanded with normal use it cracked the ring and oil started getting by. There was no damage to the sleeves. I had been hearing what sounded like a slightly louder than normal third (non-DI) tick sound coming from the area of the affected cylinder beforehand.

I've got pics if anybody's interested. The piston crack ones didn't come out well at all, but I've got a ton of the LNF disassembled.

 

Yes, please post pics. I'm interested in seeing how your pistons look. I think my car is going in the same direction as yours!

 

Sure thing. I'll upload and post them up when I get home from work.

 

I posted up the pictures in my gallery. It's hard to tell on the piston picture, but if you look close you can make out one of the cracks. I wanted to keep the piston, but they said they had to hold onto it to send it in since all parts replaced under warranty must be sent in.

Update: Made a thread and posted up the pics. https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-0l-lnf-performance-tech-153/piston-ring-failure-lots-pics-inside-lnf-196631/

 

old dodge 2.2 2.5 motors had the plugs in the side of the head not down the center of the valve cover..... you fail